Narratives of the Invisible: Autobiography, Kinship, and Alterity in Native Amazonia
Vanessa Grotti, M. Brightman
Social Analysis: Journal of Cultural and Social Practice March 1, 2016 DOI: 10.3167/sa.2016.600107 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that shamans oscillate between visible and invisible spheres of intimacy, maintaining an ambiguous commensality with invisible others. Proposes the concept of 'double reflexivity' to describe how narratives about the self are produced through relationships with alterity, and contends that life histories, rather than ritual performance analyses, best reveal the relationship between personal history and the spirit world. |
Abstract
Shamanic knowledge is based on an ambiguous commensality with invisible others. As a result, shamans oscillate constantly between spheres of intimacy, both visible and invisible. A place of power and transformation, the spirit world is rarely described by native interlocutors in an objective, detached way; rather, they depict it in terms of events and experiences. Instead of examining the formal qualities of accounts of the spirit world through analyses of ritual performance and shamanic quests, we focus on life histories as autobiographical accounts in order to explore what they reveal about the relationship between personal history (and indigenous historicity) and the spirit world. We introduce the term ‘double reflexivity’ to refer to processes by which narratives about the self are produced through relationships with alterity.